Latvian Defense Minister resigns after drone crashes in country

Latvian Defense Minister Andris Spruds resigned after two drones flew into the country on May 7 and hit oil storage facilities.

He wrote about this in his H.

According to him, he made this decision to protect the Latvian army from being "drawn into a political campaign".

"Over the past days and weeks, we have witnessed incidents with drones in Latvia and other countries. Foreign drones should not threaten the security of our people. The defense sector has done and will continue to do a lot to strengthen our air defense capabilities," the minister said.

Spruds noted that the development of the defense sector is his political responsibility. According to his assessment, Latviaʼs defense capabilities are at a high level, although "there is still a lot of work to be done".

"Unfortunately, it is clear that this situation is no longer being used just to criticize the minister or his party. It is being used to question Latviaʼs defense capability, to question the readiness of the Ministry of Defense, the National Armed Forces — Latvian patriots who work every day for the security of Latvia. This is unacceptable to me," Spruds added.

Meanwhile, Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silinė demanded Sprudsʼ resignation, saying that anti-drone systems had not been deployed quickly enough. Latvian Army Colonel Raivis Melnis was appointed as the new defense minister.

What preceded

On the night of May 7, unidentified drones violated Latvian airspace. Two of them fell on the territory of an oil depot in Rezekne, damaging four oil tanks.

The drones flew into the country from Russian territory, but they are not necessarily Russian. Such incidents have previously occurred when Ukrainian drones attacked northern Russian ports. Latvia has launched an investigation.

According to Defense Minister Spruds, the main assumption at the moment is that the drones came from Ukraine.

"They are striking legitimate targets on the territory of the aggressor state, but the investigation is ongoing, as is communication with the Ukrainian side. The results will be available after the investigation is completed," the Latvian minister said.

Later, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha confirmed that the drones were Ukrainian, but Russian electronic warfare equipment deliberately deflected them from targets on Russian territory.

In light of the incident, the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Russian chargé dʼaffaires to deliver a note of protest.

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